Guest MINDSETTER™ Dan Lawlor: Don’t Let Providence Become a One-Factory Town
Friday, January 20, 2012
One hundred years ago, New England cities and towns were struck by a metaphorical earthquake: the Lawrence Mill Strike of 1912. In labor folklore, that labor strike struggle has been memorialized as the strike for Bread and Roses - for higher wages and a better quality of life.
American factory workers of 100 years ago were similar to Chinese factory workers today - underpaid, overworked, and part of something new. Just as China has seen numerous labor strikes in recent years of workers demanding more accountability, dignity, and higher standard of living, the US one hundred years ago was rife was work unrest.
Lawrence, Massachusetts is a city, roughly the size of Pawtucket, North of Boston, MA and South of Manchester, NH. Unlike other former factory towns, Lawrence is not home to universities and expansive research hospitals. The city, according to Regina Blaszcyzk, was created in 1845 as a "big, bold, high tech" alternative to the factory town of Lowell, "11 miles upstream on the Merrimack."
Over sixty years after Lawrence's founding, as Blaszcyzk recalls, this "noble social experiments of the 19th century" was the site of angry, organized immigrants and labor unrest. 1912 working conditions in Lawrence were horrible - children worked in factories, workers died on the job, illness and hunger plagued many. Workers surrounded by these "serpents of smoke" demanded to have a decent wage - higher salaries to meet basic needs, and shorter hours (average workday was 10) to have a better quality of life. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in an effort to support these demands, reduced the number of hours a person could work. In response, Lawrence mill owners cut wages by two hours. The loss of that additional pay lead to riots and strikes. Yet, shortly after, wages rose due to the activism, the strikes, and the organization of workers.
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Two generation of workers benefited from these actions- wages increased and more workers and immigrants entered the middle class. Middle class workers supported business, paid for schools, and created a thriving downtown. After the construction of highways, some left Lawrence for the suburbs (and as Tom Sgouros has noted, suburbanization created new costs for new roads and infrastructure). By the 1960s, seeking higher profit margins, factory owners moved production, and deindustrialization took place- first moving factories South, then overseas. Unfortunately, Lawrence leaders were caught up in the mania of urban renewal. Many streetscapes that could have been incubators for change and rebirth were destroyed by progress, I mean, wrecking balls.
According to Steve Early, Lowell today is considered in better economic and political shape than Lawrence. The economy is more diversified, and the schools are considered better. Both cities struggle (like Providence) with the environmental after effects of pollution from the industrial age. While Lowell benefits from higher education institutions, Lawrence was created solely to house a factory industry that no longer exists. The city's schools were recently taken over by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Providence has challenges - including the legacy of industrialization and pollution that all New England factory towns suffer with. Yet, Providence has over half a dozen universities, a fine arts museum, quality restaurants, community gardens, and excellent hospitals. Being strategic about our assets, and keeping the economy diverse needs to be the focus. We can't become a one factory town again -be it tourism or biotech. Lawrence's recent struggles warn us to not let promises of easy cash compromise our long term assets. Expert-based urban renewal, corruption, and a desire for corporate profits, helped hinder dozens of New England cities (from Springfield to Fall River). Community based efforts to fix our schools, and promote a diverse, small businesses based economy seem to be good steps forward for New England. We can have a diverse economy, decent wages, and smart leadership - we have to work for it. One hundred years after the Bread and Roses strike of 1912, let's continue to work for Bread and Roses.
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